At CodeWizardHQ we believe coding can transform the future. Earth Day is a reminder that we are all part of a big beautiful planet and need to join together to take care of its magnificence.

Today we salute The Three Kid Inventors! All three of the amazing students below used computational thinking to bring their imagination to life! They saw a possibility and built a life-saving robot! Light homes without electricity! And make our world healthier through harnessing green energy!

Coding and computational thinking are not just specialized technicals skills that limit our kids to sitting in front of a screen. They provide the catalyst for making life-changing inventions come to life. Learn more about how you can launch your kids’ possibilities for becoming the innovators of tomorrow: www.codewizardshq.com

Thirteen-year-old David Cohen created two major potentially life-saving inventions, including one designed to locate earthquake victims and one equipped to prevent mosquito-borne diseases. 3M

David Cohen, Texas. As he learned about earthworms in class he became curious to learn if anyone had created a robotic earthworm. He began to actively inquire about the applications such a robot could have and decided to build one himself! Using the knowledge had had from coding he created a prototype robot. The robot had heat-sensing technology and GPS! The robot served to rescue people from emergencies safely and efficiently!

(Rafikov Family/Discovery Education) Nikita Rafikov, 11, built a “House Of The Future” with windows that contain a green fluorescent protein to emit light.

Nikita Rafikov, Georgia. The 11-year-old developed a way to embed GFP, or green fluorescent protein, into windows to create efficient glass and lighting. GFP is the protein found in certain jellyfish that creates those cool bioluminescence effects seen in nature photography. By embedding this protein into windows, Rafikov has found a way to light homes without the use of electricity.

Javier Fernandez-Han, Texas. At 9 years old, he knew he wanted the Versatile System, a mix of new and existing technology that uses algae to treat waste, produces methane and bio-oil as fuel, grows food, and traps greenhouse gases.

Yesterday, Zoom, the company that enables online collaboration had its IPO which valued the company at $9.2B! The company is so valuable because they have built the technology platform that enables how work gets done in the future – distributed teams, collaborating seamlessly through virtual meetings.

Carl Eschenbach, a partner at Sequoia was asked why did he decide to invest in zoom. He explained, “When we spoke to the CFO of one of the largest and fastest growing tech companies in the world, he told us he spends 80% of his day using Zoom talking to his people around the world. That is transforming the way people communicate and collaborate globally and in the enterprise”.

Why is work transforming this way? Why are we moving from co-located teams to distributed teams? It is because companies want to work with the best talent they can hire, regardless of where they live. It is true even for CodeWizardsHQ. We are a distributed team and it enables us to hire the very best from around the world. And we use zoom every day for internal collaboration. Being global is part of our culture.

What does this mean for our students?

CodeWizardsHQ has been utilizing the Zoom platform to teach coding to students through live, instructor-led, virtual classrooms. We have always believed that utilizing an online medium for teaching coding is not only effective and convenient but also prepares our students for the work environment of the future. Our students will be confident, communicative, and capable to lead virtual meetings.

In eight years, 50.9% of the U.S. workforce will be remote. The community at CodeWizardsHQ is far-reaching. We have students all over the globe! Our students will be increasingly prepared for the work environment of the next decades where distributed teams collaborate via virtual mediums.

If you are a parent and interested in exploring coding education for your child, find out about us here – www.codewizardshq.com.

2. Dance & Code

“For the longest time, code was completely separate from dance. I never really put them together. And they were two completely different worlds until a few years ago when I got the idea to combine code and dance to create iLuminate.”

3. Videogame & Code

“I make a lot of things with code but they all go into one thing, which is a video game. There is more to video games that throwing a football around or driving a fast car. The great thing about making a video game is that it encompasses just about every creative activity that you can imagine.”

4. Animation & Code

“There is a million things you can do with code in animated films. You can use code to make a leaf flutter. You can make a giant head of red curly hair that moves appropriate with the character. You can make water. You can make schools of fish with code. You can have a car drive on a road with code. You can make cloth that moves with the characters. There are so many things you can do with it. It goes on and on and on”.

5. Fashion & Code

“I live in New York and I work at the intersection of fashion and technology. In order to dream big in the field of future fashion, it is essential to know a little bit about code. In the future, clothing will be fully responsive to our bodies. The building blocks of all of these innovations are having an understanding of code. I truly believe that if you get involved with code now you will be able to help build the future of the fashion industry.”

6. Music & Code

“If you want to make beats, I would start off putting loops together. It is sort of like you are building something in legos. You are putting together a whole bunch of things to build one song. I am wondergirl and my music is made with code.”

If you have been looking for a good coding program for your child, you might be wondering what to look for.

Here are the most important things to look for if your child is to learn meaningful coding skills over time, while enjoying the whole process.

1. Instructor-Led

Coding is a hard subject to learn by themselves, unless your child is exceptionally motivated and disciplined. All the self-paced video courses help with the initial few steps, but as soon as your child gets stuck, there is no one to help. And that is when most students get frustrated and give up. If the classes are taught by an experience instructor, they can help answer your child’s question, get them unstuck and keep them moving forward.